As Team Dar-us-Salaam Grabs Eighth MIST Win, a Reason to Celebrate for All

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Photo by Zubair Nizami.

Refusing to surrender its seven-year-winning streak, Team Darussalam (DUS/Al-Huda School) swept up its eighth first place trophy at the annual Muslim Inter-Scholastic Tournament (MIST) held from March 30-April 1, 2012 at the University of Maryland, College Park, setting the spotlight on the school’s iron-firm success and on a record-shattering tournament that has transformed the landscape of the Muslim community since its establishment nearly ten years ago.

Established in 2003, MIST is a nationwide competition that pits high school teams against each other in over 31 competitions, varying from math to prepared essay to short film to Quran memorization, in a three-day-weekend packed with educational workshops, activities, and competitions centered around one theme. MIST has 11 regional tournaments scattered across the U.S., from California to New York and Texas to Toronto; top 5 winners from all regions compete in MIST Nationals.

This year, a record number of 639 competitors and 69 teams from as far as Richmond, Virginia and Hagerstown, Maryland competed - a nearly double hike compared to 2010’s 35 teams and 352 competitors.

Team Eleanor Roosevelt, an MSA representing Eleanor Roosevelt High School, snagged the 2nd place prize for the third year in a row, aggressively cutting away at the first place point lead and giving DUS a force to reckon with.

Regional Director Adam Kareem said point differences between DUS and the second-place team reduced from about 100 to 30 points in the last two years.

“In the past, DUS has won by almost double the point score of second place. The competition is really increasing,” he said.

DUS’s success has been attributed to the team’s passion, their coaches, and level of preparation. Some said they believe the backbone of the school’s community has given the school an upper hand while others believe its sheer size – over 40 competitors – is a factor.

“Yes, they do have a large team which helps improve their chances,” Kareem said, “But having a larger team doesn’t necessitate an overall victory.” This year, ER and Western Tech placed 2nd and 3rd respectively, compared to Islamic Saudi Academy – DUS former longtime competition – and its 50 members.

“You couple a desire to win a dedicated coaching staff and you have a formula for success that’s hard to beat,” Kareem said.

Public schools, many public school competitors assert, have more difficulty establishing meeting rooms, organizing events, and rallying community support around their cause – factors many believe give private schools an upper hand in the competition.

“There’s huge stigma associated with being on the Darussalam team,” Arif Kabir, a former DUS competitor, former assistant coach and current judge, said. “I saw it in the judging room this year - it’s almost as if the stereotype is working against the team, hampering down school spirit.”

Winning teams aside, MIST has been credited with bringing together MSAs, honing Muslim youth’s identities, and bridging the divide between day-to-day interests and student’s religious responsibilities, giving competitors “an arena to explore their Islamic understanding and express it in a way that speaks to who they are,” Kareem said.

MIST offers a set of unique competitions not offered readily in other venues – including short film, fashion design, improv, and spoken word – allowing competitors to try new projects and gauge their potential, competitors said.

This exploration has transcended beyond high school and into-post graduate life, Sanjana Quasem, a former competitor and worker in the public health field said.

Others competitors cite the Islamic, hyped, energetic, and God-fearing atmosphere as the highlight of their weekend. “There’s a real sense of brotherhood and sisterhood,” a Sherwood High School competitor said, “You don’t see it that often everywhere.”

MISTs key, however, is that it serves as a dual enrichment system – run primarily by college-students just a few years older than the high school competitors.

“Whether you are a competitor, volunteer, organizer, judge, or speaker, there is so much that you can give to MIST but at the same time, so much you can take for your own personal development - and that is what I find most beautiful about MIST,” Quasem, a long-timer DC MIST organizer stepping down this year, said.

Jumpstarting MSAs

The private school’s success and ongoing competition with the public school has been accompanied by a shifting landscape for Muslim youth as MIST connects and strengthens MSAs across the region.

In recent years, the strength and size of public high school has been increasing. Herndon High School joined with 6 members and now has over 30. Blair High School, Western Tech High School, and dozens of other schools came with similar numbers.

“Before members of high school MSAs were largely disconnected - they are now thrust into situations that require them to work as a team. Students who may not have had a strong Muslim identity or background are now regularly meeting with their fellow Muslim peers to prepare for their competitions,” Mahvish Ameen, DC MIST’s former regional director and a competitor for three years, said.

“It’s the rallying point we need,” Osama Eshera, a University of Maryland senior and former top four-year-competitor with Atholton High School, said.

“A great trend is starting - new schools and MSAs we’ve never heard before are emerging and joining,” former ER competitor and current coach Sheima Gimie said.

Only until a few years ago, the now-winning ER team with nearly 29 members was one of these unknown. Gimie was the only person on the team.

“I didn’t think others would be interested – a Muslim weekend-long tournament with registration costs included? Nope,” Gimie said. However, when she casually introduced MIST in response to a “how was your weekend” question at an MSA meeting, students were drawn in.

“No one knows how ER got to the top except for Allah (SWT),” she said. “We were just determined to have someone walk across the [awards] stage once.”

In 2008, the team’s only winning was team banner – and now the team has scooped up trophies for over a dozen competitions.

The recent success and growth of public school teams has bolstered the efforts of many teams, parent and coach of Richmond’s James River High School, Mohammed Rais, said.

On the flipside, some MSAs struggle to limp forward as MIST quickly takes the center-stage of MSA activities, overriding some members’ desires to “just have fun.”

At Clarksburg High School, a freshman, excited to finally join MIST, filled the MSA bandwagon with all the necessary ingredients: she formed a brand-new MSA within weeks of joining the school, recruited a sponsor, and had almost a dozen committed members by her side. Yet, she competed was the only person to compete on behalf of her team.

For Springbrook High School - a school that has a stake in MIST for over five years as compared to Clarksburg’s fresh fling- the story is similar.

“For the past two years, the only time he had an MSA meeting that consisted of more than two people was in January - when we got pizza,” former president of Springbrook’s MSA, Adam Hussain, said. “When I questioned this anomaly, I was told that I was ‘obsessed with MIST’ and that it was ‘a waste of time.’”

The MIST Board is looking forward to more expansion in the future, especially by developing and honing team coaches.

“Many times what we’re seeing is teams that need coaches that are willing to push them, set up practices, and really work to prepare the them for the competition ahead,” Kareem said. “This is something that MIST is in increasing need of as the numbers of participants continue to grow.”

Dual Enrichment

While MIST has provided a support area for MSAs, it is also working to pop college campus bubbles that disconnect many college students from community activism while forcing area masajid to be drawn into Muslim high school youth, MIST organizers said.

Within MSAs, the close collaboration of George Washington, George Mason, University of Maryland, College Park, and Baltimore organizers to be involved in each other’s college-campus events while encouraging organizers to bridge gaps between college youth and the older community – gaps that can often emerge as MSAs become mini-replacements for community masajid.

“When one part of the Ummah aches, the whole the aches,” Jamal Aladdin, a former UMD student and current marketing committee chair, said. “It’s easy to replace that body with the college community.”

Organizers and volunteers regularly reach out to masajid and community members to coordinate, sponsor, and help with the event, a key factor which increases the level of familiarity between people and prevents potential disconnects.

“Most of our board members are quite active in their college communities, as well as the Muslim community, and as a result, MIST serves as the stop-gap of our generation’” Jamal Aladdin, a former UMD student and current marketing chair, said. “We give khutbahs about MIST, approach local businesses and masajid for information sessions and sponsorship, or even walk a parent through registration.”

The competition has also helped put high school age youth on the map in area masajid, Ameen said. “A lot of the high school teams regularly meet at local masajid as they are preparing for the competitions since it is a common area. Thus, in addition to high schoolers meeting, talking, and working with their Muslim peers more often, but you see them now coming back to the masjid even after MIST has ended because it has become a more familiar place to them.”

And in many families, MIST is a household name, becoming what Sehrish Ameen, a former competitor and current organizer, called “a family oriented event.” This year’s theme challenged students to examine the American Muslim family system, themed “Reconnecting our Hearts to Home.”

Home

For many competitors, coaches, and community members MIST has become a second-home. “That’s what our team, our region has become – a family,” Gimie said.”

MIST hopes to the expand DC MIST to the nation’s capital – though named after DC, the regional tournament garners few teams from the Washington area.

A former organizer, who asked to remain anonymous for this article, believes the MIST board needs to challenge itself to move beyond planning for a single-weekend.

“Moving forward, I think MIST needs to make a concision decision about how it plans to be a means through which all of its participants (organizers, competitors, judges) plug-in to our larger community,” the source said.

As part of a long-list of expansions, DC MIST has begun to cast a wide net for experiences judges and community members to create dialogue with the larger community.

It organized a community involvement fair for the first time this year, calling nearly a dozen community organizations, including Al-Maghrib Institute, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, and the youth counseling forum, Nur Youth Forum, to set up booth and pitch what they do to the MIST community.

The dream? “MIST should reach every high school in the Maryland, DC, and Northern Virginia in the same way that these schools field basketball and football teams,” Kareem said.

“It’s one of those things that’s just so good that you want to share it with everyone and it does so much good that you really need the support of everyone,” Kareem said.

“For one it has definitely gotten people married. If that’s not a fruit of MIST after a decade then I don’t know what to tell you!”

The top 5 winners from DC MIST will be competing against ten other regions at MIST Nationals in Toronto from July 6-8.